(Compared
to whom? To the Busheviks?), but that had nothing to do with it.

The
great exodus of the people of Kosovo resulted from the bombing,

not
Serbian "ethnic cleansing"; and while saving Kosovars the Clinton
administration was servicing

the
Turkish massacre of Kurds. NATO admitted (sic) to repeatedly and deliberately

targeting
civilians; amongst other war crimes.[8]

Somalia: The 1993
intervention was presented as a mission to help feed the starving masses.

But
the US soon started taking sides in the clan-based civil war and tried to rearrange

the
country's political map by eliminating the dominant warlord, Mohamed Aidid,

and
his power base. On many occasions, US helicopters strafed groups of Aidid's
supporters

or
fired missiles at them; missiles were fired into a hospital because of the belief
that Aidid's

forces
had taken refuge there; also a private home, where members of Aidid's political
movement

were
holding a meeting; finally, an attempt by American forces to kidnap two leaders
of Aidid's

clan
resulted in a horrendous bloody battle. This last action alone cost the lives
of more

than
a thousand Somalis, with many more wounded.

It's questionable that getting food to hungry people was as
important as the fact

that
four American oil giants held exploratory rights to large areas of Somali land
and were hoping

that
US troops would put an end to the prevailing chaos which threatened their

highly
expensive investments.[9]

Ecuador: In 2000, downtrodden
Indian peasants rose up once again against

the
hardships of US/IMF globalization policies, such as privatization.

The
Indians were joined by labor unions and some junior military officers and their
coalition

forced
the president to resign. Washington was alarmed.

American
officials in Quito and Washington unleashed a blitz of threats against
Ecuadorian government

and
military officials. And that was the end of the Ecuadorian revolution.[10]

Sudan: The US deliberately bombed
and destroyed a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum in 1998

in
the stated belief that it was a plant for making chemical weapons for
terrorists.

In
actuality, the plant produced about 90 percent of the drugs used to treat

the most deadly illnesses in that desperately
poor country; it was reportedly one of the biggest

and
best of its kind in Africa. And had no connection to chemical weapons.[11]

Sierra Leone: In 1998, Clinton sent Jesse Jackson as his
special envoy to Liberia and Sierra Leone,

the
latter being in the midst of one of the great horrors of the 20th century

--
an army of mostly young boys, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF),

going
around raping and chopping off people's arms and legs.

African
and world opinion was enraged against the RUF,

which
was committed to protecting the diamond mines they controlled.

Liberian
president Charles Taylor was an indispensable ally and supporter of the RUF

and
Jackson was an old friend of his. Jesse was not sent to the region to try to
curtail

the
RUF's atrocities, nor to hound Taylor about his widespread human rights
violations,

but
instead, in June 1999, Jackson and other American officials drafted entire
sections

of
an accord that made RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, the vice president of Sierra
Leone,

and
gave him official control over the diamond mines, the country's major source of
wealth.[12]

Iraq: Eight more years of the economic
sanctions which Clinton's National Security Advisor,

Sandy
Berger, called "the most pervasive sanctions ever imposed on a nation in
the history

of
mankind",[13] absolutely devastating every aspect of the lives of the
Iraqi people,

particularly
their health; truly a weapon of mass destruction.

Cuba: Eight more years of economic
sanctions, political hostility,

and
giving haven to anti-Castro terrorists in Florida. In 1999,

Cuba
filed a suit against the United States for $181.1 billion in compensation for
economic losses

and loss of life during the first forty years
of this aggression.

The
suit holds Washington responsible for the death of 3,478 Cubans and the
wounding

and
disabling of 2,099 others.
Only the imperialist powers have the ability to enforce
sanctions and are therefore

always exempt from them.
As to Clinton's domestic policies, keep in mind those two
beauties:

The
"Effective death penalty Act" and the "Welfare Reform Act".
And let's not forget the massacre at Waco, Texas.

Three billion years from amoebas to Homeland Security
"The Department of Homeland Security would like to remind
passengers that you may not take any liquids onto the plane.
This includes ice cream, as the ice cream will melt and turn into a liquid."
This was actually heard by one of my readers at the Atlanta
Airport recently;

he
laughed out loud. He informs me that he didn't know what was more bizarre,

that
such an announcement was made or that he was the only person that he could see

who
reacted to its absurdity.[14] This is the way it is with societies of people.

Like
with the proverbial frog who submits to being boiled to death in a pot of water

if
the water is heated very gradually, people submit to one heightened absurdity
and indignation

after
another if they're subjected to them at a gradual enough rate.

That's
one of the most common threads one finds in the personal stories of Germans

living
in the Third Reich. This airport story is actually an example of an absurdity

within
an absurdity. Since the "bomb made from liquids and gels" story was
foisted

upon
the public, several chemists and other experts have pointed out the technical

near-impossibility
of manufacturing such a bomb in a moving airplane,

if
for no other reason than the necessity of spending at least an hour or two in
the airplane bathroom.

[4] William Blum,
Killing Hop: US Military & CIA Interventions Since World War II (2004),

chapter 5

[5]
Nicaragua Network (Washington, DC), October 29, 2001

--
www.nicanet.org/pubs/hotline1029_2001.html
and New York Times, November 4, 2001, p.3

[6] Miami Herald,
October 29, 2001

[7]
The remainder of the section on Nicaragua is derived primarily from The
Independent (London),

September
6, 2006, and "2006 Nicaraguan Elections and the US Government Role.

Report
of the Nicaragua Network delegation to investigate US intervention in the
Nicaraguan

elections
of November 2006" --
www.nicanet.org/pdf/Delegation%20Report.pdf
See also: "List of interventions by the United States government in
Nicaragua's democratic process." --
www.nicanet.org/list_of_interventionist_statments.php

To make a financial donation to support the work of the
Anti-Empire Report you can use the following address.
Thank you.
William Blum
5100 Connecticut Ave., NW #707
Washington, DC 20008-2064

William
Blum is the author of: Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since
World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire

Portions
of the books can be read, and copies purchased, at <www.killinghope.org >
Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.